More World Cup kudos for Copper Mountain skiing in Colorado

Beaver Creek — Stacey Cook had never been on the World Cup podium before Friday, but Friday and Saturday she finished second behind teammate Lindsey Vonn in downhills at Lake Louise.

Reasons include momentum from some top 10s last season and hard work this summer. But there’s another reason: She got lots of downhill training this month at Copper Mountain.

As I have mentioned before, the US Ski Team Speed Center there, now in its second year, has given the team’s downhillers a chance to get lots of downhill training at a time of year when other teams are hard-pressed to find anything remotely resembling downhill conditions.

This isn’t a very good analogy but imagine if, before a major golf tournament, a player got to play the course several times before the tournament, but the rest of the field could only practice on the par 3 course down the street. Cook and Vonn went to Lake Louise ready to rock, and they came through, going 1-2 two days in a row.